4 -Friday, January 11, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com L 4e AtIC41,60an 43al4"Im Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR KARL STAMPFL EDITOR IN CHIEF Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorialboard. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors. The Daily's public editor, Paul H. Johnson, acts as the readers'representative and takes a critical look at coverage and content in every section ofthe paper. Readers are encouraged to contactthe public editor with questions and comments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu. F r O THE DAMtY Movin' on up Two Ann Arbor proposals threaten housing affordability inding an off-campus place to live near central campus is hard; finding a quality, affordable one on central campus is next to impossible. In the face of fierce competition among students to nab the best places, many students are left crammed into decrepit houses with inflated prices. Right now, the city of Ann Arbor is considering two separate proposals, one to build a high-rise apartment complex and another to rezone the area near Burns Park, which would only make the situation worse. These proposals move away from the two issues most important to stu- dent housing: affordability and community diversity. First, a kind word about Hillary Clinton. [She] looks good in a pant suit." -Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, in the opening of a commercial by the conservative group Citizens United. The commercial is one of several by the group being challenged in a federal appeals court. JASON DEKIMPE The pursuit of happiness every University ot Michigan Forexample,whenwas thelsttime mind if two dollars of that tuition was student gets three opportuni- you received a survey from the Uni- going to front the money for a concert ties to touch the grass at Mich- versity to find out how your student that might pay for itself. igan Stadium: two experience was going? My best friend Doing little things specifically for chances if Michigan attends Virginia Tech. He receives students would be a pleasant reminder beats Ohio state at several surveys every year. Some are that the administration knows we're home and once at basic "how are you" surveys from his here. Yeah, the University brings great graduation. department. Others ask him about speakers to campus like Bill Clinton at Unfortunately, the food options on campus. One even last year's commencement,hbut the pri- as a member of the asked him to detail his experience mary audience is academics and older 2008 graduating with university advisers. Ann Arbor residents. These aren't stu- class, IShave suffered I remember the last time I received dent-centered activities. four years of losing a survey: It was when the Univer- I understand there are complexities to Ohio State. After sity asked what I would like to see here, and I know the University didn't this year's Ohio MEKELBURG improved about the Big House. They start the renovations with the inten- State loss, I climbed decided to renovate it with those sug- tion of ruining graduation. But one to the top rows of an gestions - now those suggestions are of two things happened. Either they emptying Michigan Stadium to stare hurtingus. didn't have the foresight to deal with out onto the field. I was cold, wet, If the University did ask about more it or they didn't care. Both situations alone and heartbroken. But I realized everyday concerns, students would are equally troubling. that as magical as a win would have probably have a lot to say. A friend, been, touching the field as a graduate who is now in the Ross School of Busi- would be even more special. ness, was told that he was ineligible to Another example Now, I'll never touch the grass of apply to the B-School. At large public Michigan Stadium. universities, bureaucratic mishaps are of the U' n tcaring I won't even graduate in the cityI've bound to happen, but I would like to Ot called home for four years. I'm not bit- see an attempt at improvement. about stu ter about going to Ypsilanti - there's Then there are concerts.A concert is dents. nothing wrong with the fair city next a visible thing a university can do for its door - I would be just as upset if I students. My Virginia Tech friend told found out I was graduating at the top me about eight university-sponsored The worst part of the whole thing is of the Empire State Building. I just concerts in the last four years at his col- that I end up feeling trapped in a bad want to graduate here. lege: acts like G-Unit, Dave Matthews relationship. No matter what the Uni- Maybe I shouldn't have been so Band, 311 and John Mayer. Bob Dylan versity does, I still love it here. In fact, surprised, though. This incident just and Elvis Costello played at Eastern everyone I know still loves it here. I hammers home something I've always Michigan University last semester. Of don't even know if "love" is a strong subconsciously felt. It may be a little course, Ludacris performed here, even enough word to describe my passion blasphemous, but I don't think this if it was a huge financial disaster. But for the University of Michigan. Right University cares about its students. that concert may not have happened now, though, the class of 2008 is get- Sure, the University cares about without the grassroots effort of groups ting fucked. academics and prestige. It cares about like Hillel and the Michigan Student I hope the administration hears you getting a greatjob, you giving back Assembly. This month's Mos Def show our outcry. Maybe it will remind them some of your post-graduation earnings will mark only the second major act that we're here. Sometimes, I think and maintaining its golden reputation with a large student following during they forget. that justifies its Ivy League-sized price my four years. tag. I'm saying the University doesn't The University has had no problem David Mekelburg is an outgoing care about whether students are happy raisingmy tuition thousands of dollars associate news editor. He can be while they're here. during the past four years. I wouldn't reached at dmek@umich.edu Death by deterioration a a The first proposal being considered is a plan to construct a 26-story apartment building called University Village on the corner of South University and South For- est avenues. The complex would house up to 1,750 residents and offer lush amenities including flat-screen televisions, washer and dryers in every unit, a fitness center, a caf6 and a Residential Advisor on each floor. The design also promises eco-friend- ly features, like a green roof - a 14,000 square-foot area designed to save energy and recycle rainwater. Sounds great, right? It's luxurious, leaves a small carbon footprint, emphasizes den- sity and is right in the heart of campus. But the next logic question is "How much will rent be?". While the contractors have yet to make public how much it will cost to rent an apartment at University Village, the silence seems to indicate the answer already: too much. Consequently, if University Village is built, it will turn out to be a high-end apartment complex serving the richer students on cam- pus. This further segregates the population of those living off-campus, as students who cannot afford the pricey housing near cam- pus are pushed farther out to the margins of campus to find cheaper rent. Naturally, this affects the University's ability to provide an equal and diverse atmosphere in which all of its students can interact. If another city proposal is passed next week, though, some students will lose the option of moving even farther away. Cur- rently, homes in the Burns Park neighbor- hood south of Dewey Street are zoned to allow both multiple-family and single-fam- ily units in the area. For students who are willing to live further away from campus, the extra distance translates into big sav- ings. However, some members of the Ann Arbor City Council are hoping to rezone a section along Golden Avenue. The proposed change would rezone the area to single-fam- ily housing, which would not affect current multi-family housing but would stop more apartment complexes from being built and prevent homeowners from breaking their houses into several individual units. For the residents who are demanding this proposal, there is only one justifica- tion: unrealized hysteria. Unlike some of the houses near central campus, plastic red cups and beer cans aren't strewn care- lessly across the front lawns of houses in the Burns Park area nor is there any more of a parking problem there than inAnn Arbor in general. Students have generally been living amicably in this area for years. Even ifa few students have been disrespectful, that's no reason to crowd them out of the neighbor- hood. The University has been rooted in Ann Arbor for almost 185 years. Residents are bound to encounter a few obnoxious students - just as students are bound to encounter a few obnoxious residents. In both of the proposals being considered by the city council, there is a danger that stu- dent housing in Ann Arbor will become even more unaffordable and detrimental to our campus diversity. We need more high-rise, environmentally friendly student housing near central campus, just not with unneces- sary luxuries that keep the prices high. ID LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU ing your greatness a lie. If the University is concerned about its reputation and the happiness of its students and their families, it will find some way to hold graduation at the Big House in April. 0 a 'U' abandons tradition TO THE DAILY: I have been involved in the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club for the past four years. If you have ever been to one of our con- certs, you would know that, at the end of each performance, we sing "Michigan Songs," hailing the University's greatness and long- standing traditions. When I was accepted to the University, I thought I mightbe attending a school that respected these traditions. Commencement is the grand finale of many students' four years of hard work, late nights, new friends and col- lege memories. It was supposed to take place in the Big House - and now it won't. Why? Luxury boxes. Since the idea of these special seats for rich and well-known alumni was presented, it has been surrounded by conflict and frustration by those of us who see no reason to fix some- thing that isn't broken. Not only will the lux- ury boxes ruin the football experience at the Big House but they also will ruin the event that marks the end of my time in Ann Arbor. Thank you very much, University of Michi- gan. You've just made my four years of sing- LILA KALICK Eric Portenga LSA senior Family will miss first and only trip to Big House TO THE DAILY: I am writingto express my profound dis- appointment in the University of Michigan's decision to hold this year's spring commence- ment at Eastern Michigan University instead of at our beloved Michigan Stadium. The already unpopular renovations being made to the stadium are the reason being given for depriving the class of 2008 its privilege of graduating at the University. Not only is the $226-million project creating a classist separatism in the Big House by adding luxury seating, which is contradictoryto Michigan tradition, this unnecessary construction is not being adjusted to accommodate this year's graduating class. This decision will affect thousands of graduating students and has already affected me greatly. Iam the first in my family to graduate from college. My commencement is not just an accomplishment for me - it is one Ihave been looking forward to sharing with my family. Although my family has been Michigan fans for generations, none of it has been able to visit the Big House. For four years Ihave anticipated the opportunity to share the school, the campus and the stadium I love with my family at commencement. Unfortunately, Ihave to break the news that commencement will not be held at the Big House, the University or even in Ann Arbor. It is incomprehensible to me that the Uni- versity doesn't view providing its students with the graduation they deserve as an obli- gation. After spending more than $100,000 during the last four years and countless hours of studying, my previously unwavering trust in the University have now been irreparably damaged. All Ican do now is hope that the outrage expressed by University students and alumni will be enough to convince the Uni- versity to reconsider. Leah Potvin LSA senior bout four years ago I returned home from high school to find three squad cars in my drive- way. The sight of the police officers con- gregated in front of my house threw me off, but when I saw that they were w crowded around my 78-year-old - grandmother I was ASHLEA even more baffled. My grandma lived SURLES about two miles away, didn't have a car and wasn't exactly someone you'd expect to get picked up for disturbing the peace. "Ashlinka!" my grandma - a born and bred Pole - cried as she spotted me walking up to the house. I looked at the officers' concerned expressions over her shoulder as I hugged her 4- foot-10-inch, 100-pound frame. It turned out that the police had picked her up when she was trying to walk down the unpaved side of a main road, with severely arthritic knees, from her apartment to my family's house. She had mistaken the day and thought that my mom had forgotten to pick her up to go grocery shopping. It was a Thursday and my mom had told her on the phone the night before that, just like every week for the last few years, she would pick my grand- ma up on Saturday to go to the grocery store. This was the first major incident signaling the onset of my grandma's dementia, but in the next years there were many more like it. Dementia is characterized by a loss of mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. It progres- sively impairs the memory, reasoning, planning and personalities of its vic- tims. But you probably don't need this definition. This is the first time in his- to do by their grandparents, just not tory that it's considered to be common for the same reasons. knowledge. But there are other less obvious, Recent studies show that neuro- yet deeper impacts of this tragic phe- logical disorders like dementia and nomenon. We are learning that death Alzheimer's disease among the elderly is often ugly and painful, coming are higher than ever, afflicting one before a body shuts down but jerking in seven Americans over the age of loved ones through a treacherous pro- 71. The prevalence of the disease has cess of letting go while one is already increased by 1,200 percent since 1998, mentally long gone. While statistics makingit exceedinglylikelythatyou're illustrate that people are living lon- familiar with these conditionsbecause ger, these progressive mental diseases at least one of your grandparents has are striking early, teaching us that life been affected. Today, Alzheimer's dis- is shorter than is often planned. And ease is the eighth most common cause more, we can look at our formerly of death in America, marking the first capable grandparents slipping back time in 50 years - and perhaps ever - that a neurodegenerative disorder made the top ten. How neurological Our parents' parents died most L~"~ often of heart attacks, strokes, can- ds as swilshape cers, pneumonia and tuberculosis. diseases wiv sh p They didn't waste away in hospital beds or nursing homes, surrendering our generation. dignity along with pride as they lost the ability to think for themselves, let alone eat by themselves as many of into the incapacity of childhood and our grandparents are doing right now. see the image as a symbol of life's And our parents didn't watch them go unfairness. Growing up surrounded through this. by these signs of the unconquerable Instead, our parents learned hob- and unavoidable injustices of life, we bies like cooking and fishing from have no choice but to fear our inevi- their grandparents and heard them table fate. tell stories about the World Wars and Our view, which our parents and the Great Depression. Our generation their parents before them have held, visits grandparents in nursing homes that we will be rewarded for a life well who may not even remember our lived seems tobe disintegrating along names. We are the first generation with our chances of dying gracefully. to witness the mental collapse of our We are growing up dreading growing elderly - and I can't help but wonder old, not just because of the wrinkles. what this means for us. We are the first generation of true Many of us are learning to be pro- fatalists - learning to fear our own active and will attempt to nip men- declines, instead of anticipating our tal degeneration in the bud - so to destinies - when we are still studying speak - by exercising regularly, doing for classes. crosswords daily and eating plenty of greens. Ironically, this was something Ashlea Surles can be reached that many of our parents were taught at ajsurles@umich.edu. a Af NEW MAT ONS aOt c EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben Caleca, Jon Cohen, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa Kennelly, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Robert Soave, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. All submissions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu. 0 I